Racist Sentenced To 11 Years In Arson Hate Crime Against Latino Neighbors

If you don’t think Latinos have it rough already, with ICE chasing people down and a sitting President who is anti-immigrant, I hate to break it to you, but crime against Latinos is up. A report by NBC News found that hate crimes have been up since Trump’s election. And, Richard Eugene O’Hara, 61, a recently convicted arsonist from Canal Area in San Rafael, which itself is part of Marin County, one of the wealthiest counties in the U.S., just needed to add to those crime stats.

O’Hara was charged for the crime of arson. Yes, arson, the burning of people and their belongings for the purpose of destroying their stuff and/or murdering them. No big. Just “kill it with fire” but instead of something like bugs (which you definitely shouldn’t kill with fire, but I bet people would understand if you did, because ew) we’re talking about human beings. In this case, Latino human beings specifically.

You shouldn’t kill anything with fire ever, but I’m sure someone would forgive you if you took a blow torch to these guys.

O’Hara was sentenced to the maximum of 11 years in prison for the 2015 crime of arson of an inhabited dwelling, and criminal threats against his Latina neighbor and her two children. According to this article in the Marin Independent Journal, the prosecutor also added hate-crimes to both charges to extend his prison sentence.

Marin Superior Court Judge Andrew Sweat, also destroyed him in his ruling, saying “This man is a racist,” and added “He has shown an unheard-of level of animosity toward our Latino community.” The Marin Independent Journal article also stated that Judge Sweat called O’Hara “a methamphetamine-addicted bigot who displayed no remorse.”

The Judge called O’Hara “a methamphetamine-addicted bigot who displayed no remorse.”

O’Hara was arrested after setting his own apartment ablaze in the hopes of hurting everyone else in the building. Reports say he was shouting “F– you Latinos!” and “Now all the Latinos will die!”

Firefighters were able to get to the scene and get the fire under control before it did damage to anyone or anything else. Basically, just O’Hara’s apartment was damaged.

That’s real wicked stuff, burn all your own stuff to hurt others, and you fail, and now you’re just in prison and all of your belongings are gone. At least he’ll have the next 11 years to think about it.